Downloading an ebook into an iPad Invoke the appropriate hyperlink. A dialog will appear asking how you want to open the ebook. You can choose iBooks or Nook or Kobo. The latter two apps will have to be downloaded from the app store.
You can also use a Desktop computer which is synced with the iPad:
Using a desktop computer Open iTunes on that computer.
From the iTunes Store, go to the App store, and find
Nook or Kobo or Kindle and install one into your apps (they are all free).
Plug your iPad in. When it shows up in the DEVICES panel on the left, select it and go to the Apps tab.
One of the items shown should be Nook/Kobo/Kindle. Select it, whereupon an area labelled XX documents will appear. Using theAdd button in this area, browse to the downloaded ebooks (as .epub files) from your desktop directory.
On your iPhone/iPod/iPad, open your selected ebook reader and the ebook should now show up as items in your library.
Getting an ebook for Android
Using an application called Laputa Reader, available on the Android marketplace, epub files can be read on Android devices.
Plug the device into a computer and find the folder titled "LaputaBooks". If there is a folder called "Import", drag the epub file into it. If not, create the folder and copy the file into it.
From within the Laputa application, you will then be able to import the ebook file and read it on the device.
Getting an ebook, Kindle
The .mobi version of the ebooks above is for the Kindle device.
If it not available, the epub version can be converted using the Calibre software.
To put the ebook onto the Kindle, simply plug it in via USB and drag and drop the file into the documents folder on the Kindle. When the device is next turned on, it should automatically find the document.
Instapaper is a web service that can help you to save the web pages you want to read later. You can save the page you want to read, and have the Kindle-compatible file delivered automatically to you Kindle device.
How to create eBooks
The program Calibre is used to generate an e-book in epub format. Although it accepts a variety of inputs, by far the best is HTML. The ebook itself is also expressed in HTML, and thus the conversion is pretty faithfull. Do not even attempt to convert an Acrobat file! Using Word is acceptable, but you will need to use the Word option to save as HTML. But the outcome depends very much on how fastidious you have been in your Word authoring. If you have carefully used the Word Template (stylesheet), and marked up section headings etc, then the outcome will be pretty good. If however, you have avoided the use of Templates, the result might not be that good.
A useful program which can be used to edit an (unsatisfactory conversion as done above) is Sigil. Using this, you can edit the initial conversion to something more reasonable.
Currently, some lecture course materials are being offered in eBook format. The standard used is the epub and this is supported on a variety of eBook readers. The combination tested thus far is the Stanza ebook reader as available on Apple iPhone/iPod/iPad devices. There are four ways to install an ebook into this environment.
Reading
Using Stanza, tap on the bottom to reveal a toolbar, which includes a full text search option. Resolve links by tapping and pressing for 1-2 seconds. The link will go yellow. Release and it will open. Local links to the ebook itself will open in Stanza. External links will open in the Web browser. Molecules which are rotatable on a Java-enabled browser will NOT display in an ebook.
Annotating
eBooks really come alive when you can add your own annotations to the basic content (and perchance share them with others). This is a rapidly developing area, and expect more items to appear here. For example SoundNote is an interesting app that allows you to recover sections of audio from your notes taken whilst listening.
The Future
We are exploring ways of populating e-books into either an epub server or a local iTunes store, so that course notes, and more importantly, updates to course notes (in the manner of updates to eg apps) can be propagated directly to your e-book reader. Watch this space. Or, go read about Epub3, an emerging standard which will take advantage of the capabilities of new mobile devices such as the iPad. There are also concerns about how annotations might work with the epub format. One (proprietary) solution to this is Inkling
